Chapter 11

Charles savored another letter from Sarafina, giving him news of home, giving him hope, and permitting him to be a sexual human being in his absence from her.

Charles and Sarafina Cortez had been flirting since before her husband Emilio died. Even though she loathed the fact that Emilio had become a compulsive gambler and Charles Moore was his gambling buddy, she had always had a soft spot for this tender-hearted man. Though Claire didn’t see it, his tenderness was just below the surface. Perhaps the circumstances of their marriage made such a discovery impossible for her. Their affair happened innocently enough, the day the realtors met at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver. An engineering symposium was being held in another meeting room. While she was walking through the dining plaza, she heard someone call her name. She recognized the voice as Charles Moore’s. He was sitting with a group of men, and they were all staring at her. As always, she was thrilled at the attention. She saw him stand up and walk toward her.

Since the rumor mill was fertile with gossip that the sexy teenager was promiscuous, Charles had always felt Claire had trapped him into marrying her. Though she always insisted that he use a condom when having sex with her he had no way of knowing that she hadn’t had unprotected sex with anyone else and he always thought she might have tricked him in some way ... or ... indeed fucked some other guy bareback.

He was intimidated by his father Craig Moore who never let his son forget his displeasure for not going into the service. He wasn’t aware of what his dad did in the service; he never talked about it. But he did become a general. When he told his father that he was marrying Claire (the reason didn’t become clear until her pregnancy showed) Craig urged him to wait. But he knew his dad liked Claire and didn’t understand why he disliked Claire’s dad, Stu Barr, so much. After all Stu Barr had deeded his house over to Charles and Claire as a wedding present. How many other people could say their father-in-law had done something like that? Charles liked his father-in-law. He had taken a few trips with Stu to Vegas, trips on which Stu never breathed a word of his incestuous relationship with his daughter. But the General had always cautioned and reminded him that Stu was a bad influence on him.

Within his mother’s family, among his extended aunts, uncles and older cousins there seemed to be a dirty secret as well. Charles had no idea what it was. But within the family whenever there was talk of his mother and her father there were always veiled references with raised eyebrows. His mother’s dad had died when he and Craig were on a hunting trip. Though Charles was curious the subject had too many sinister overtones for him to pursue what he might not have wanted to know. Though curious about what kind of stories they might have been, Charles never had the temerity to pursue the issues that had continually nagged at him. He never mentioned his curiosity to his relatives or his father. But it gnawed at him.

In high school, Charles had a long-term crush on Claire. She was a cheerleader and an extremely popular girl, particularly with the athletes. Charles was a reticent youth and never thought he had a chance with her. It happened during the second term in their senior year. They ended up in the same History class sitting next to one another. Claire passed a note to him. He responded and it became a regular thing. After class one day he asked, “I don’t suppose you would want to go out with me?”

“Maybe if you hadn’t supposed so negatively, we would already have been going out already,” she answered. They went for a Coke after school that day. After that, she never went with another boy. Charles was a virgin. Although he’d heard rumors that she was an “easy make” she convinced him that she was still a virgin, which was a lie. Because she played hard to get with him and spurned the weak sexual advances he made, he believed her.

After about a month she let him put his finger inside her pussy but wouldn’t let him go all the way. One night, when he pleaded with her to let him, she pacified him with a blowjob. Too excited to stop he came in her mouth. Spitting it out she said, “Eew,” making him promise never to do it again. Shamed that he defiled such an innocent girl by doing a thing to her that was so disgusting. However, when she gave him another blowjob and when he tried to pull out, she wouldn’t let him, and eagerly swallowed his cum. Though pleased, he was confused. Within a week they were fucking. She insisted that he use a rubber, always putting it on for him. He had no way of knowing that each time she rolled the condom over his penis she punctured the tip between her fingernails. Two months later she told him she was pregnant.

When he told his dad and asked if he should try to convince Claire to have an abortion, his father said, “Be a man for a change, Son. You couldn’t keep it in your pants, so you have to pay the price.” He never had the will to go against his father. But he was in love with Claire and thought he wanted to marry her.

The first few years of Charles and Claire’s marriage were good. Even though it had not ideally begun he loved Claire and felt fortunate to have her as his wife. After he got over the shock of being a father, until the summer of his family’s reunion, he doted on the little girl, Stacy.

At the reunion, while he was fishing with his second Cousin Hal, they were in the middle of the lake in a boat and had been drinking. “So,” Hal said, “ya got your pretty wife pregnant, huh?” Trying to ignore him Charles recast his line. Hal looked at him out of the corner of his eye and said, “The same thing happened to your dad.” Charles raised an eyebrow.

“You didn’t know that, huh?” Hal smirked. “But that’s not the worst of it.”

Charles felt his gut clamp tight. “What are you trying to say, Hal?”

Opening another beer Hal put it to his mouth and missed, spilling beer down the front of his shirt. Belching he said, “I’m not trying to say anything, Son, but it’s pretty much general knowledge within the family. We all figure that your dad was responsible for your mom’s daddy’s death.” Charles knew he had to be in a nightmare. Like in a nightmare, he was helpless to do anything but listen. The pit of his gut felt like it was sagging to his knees. “A few years after he married Marvella (Charles’s mother),” Hal continued, “the General found out that her daddy had been fucking her since she was a little girl. Adrian (her father) didn’t live long after that.” Hal chuckled then belched.

The words that came out of Charles’s mouth seemed surreal. “Why would you think that Dad would have anything to do with Adrian’s death?”

“Everybody’s afraid of the General, Son,” Hal answered. “Do you know what he did in Vietnam?”

“He was a soldier,” Charles responded, “commanded troops.”

“He was a special kind of soldier, Charles. He was a Spook ... commanded a bunch of guys that infiltrated the enemy and assassinated them. As far as he and your grandfather go, he and Adrian went on a hunting trip—just the two of them. Your dad said that the old man choked to death on a piece of meat.” He shook his head, took another suck on the beer can, and said, “Your Dad’s one scary motherfucker, Charles. Some father, huh?”

He visualized his grandfather from pictures he’d seen ... imagined his father cramming meat down his grandfather’s windpipe. Looking at Hal Charles shook his head and said, “Nah, Dad wouldn’t do anything like that.” But he thought of all he went through growing up, one scary motherfucker is right.

“The General hates child molesters.”

Having always considered his mother to be pure Charles wondered what relevance “child molesters” had about his grandfather.

“A number of them (child molesters) in the area have gone missing,” Hal went on. “And we all have our opinion of what happened to them.” He winked.

Not wanting to hear anymore Charles asked, “So why are you telling me this after all these years?”

“ ... just thought you should be aware of some of the scuttlebutt that’s been part of the family lore.” Hal winked again as he gave a lopsided smile, took a long swig, and came out with an equally long belch.

Feeling a hot rush in his chest Charles wanted to poke his uncle in the eye. He didn’t want to ask the question but felt compelled. “W-What are they talking about?”

“Oh, other things that might pertain to you and your pretty young wife, like: How come your father-in-law gave you and your wife his house, then up and left town? Or, how come your daughter has none of your characteristics? Absolutely none; haven’t you ever noticed?”

At first, he was livid at Hal for suggesting such a thing. When his cousin persevered though, he felt sick to his stomach. The picture of Stu Barr mounting Claire (in his and Claire’s bed) during the same time he was fucking her in the car stuck in his mind, and for the rest of the weekend, he questioned how much of a willing pawn he had been in his wife’s deceit. He didn’t have sex with her that weekend.

After the reunion, he looked upon his wife and child in a completely different light. Having loved and doted on Stacy he began distancing himself from her. For Claire, he felt nothing but emptiness. How could she have tricked him into marrying him when her father was screwing her? Could Stacy indeed be Stu Barr’s child, both Claire’s child and sister? From then on, he stopped having sex with Claire.

When Stu and Erline came back to Denver It was natural for Claire to find solace and sexual satisfaction with her father. Before her marriage, Stu had been her constant sexual partner. Charles had no idea it was happening in his home. Nor did he realize that his wife had been enticed into a bisexual relationship by his best friend’s wife, Sarafina Cortez.

To Charles, General, Craig Moore had a peculiar sense of morality. On the surface, he seemed practical. With his wife, he was tender. With Charles, he was a difficult taskmaster. Craig had begun mentoring him into the world of the secret Ops community, which Craig was dutifully following.

When Charles told his father that he wanted to divorce Claire and his reason for it, his dad told him that what had happened with Claire before they got married was water under the bridge. He said that it should be forgiven ... that Claire had been damaged by a predator and needed the care of a kind human being. The “lore” according to Cousin Hal flashed through his mind, along with the words scary motherfucker. He was too intimidated to pursue the conversation further with his dad.

After the Moore’s and Cortez’s had socialized as friends for the third time Charles noticed that Sarafina’s eyes spent a great deal of time on him. When he gazed back into hers, they never moved. Whenever they sat side by side her knee always seemed to find his. Sometimes he noticed that while her eyes were sounding the depths of his, her nostrils flared.